


A death wish and the will to live

by yumerikka



Category: Bloody Mary - Samamiya Akaza
Genre: M/M, Maria wants to live of course, Mary still has a death wish, No vampires, other than that same world
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-08-24 07:39:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8363512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yumerikka/pseuds/yumerikka
Summary: "Kill me.""... Huh?" Maria didn't even know where to start. You don't really get asked to kill someone every day, by the person themselves, to boot.





	1. "Kill me."

"Kill me."

"... Huh?" Maria didn't even know where to start. For one thing, this kid who looked like a total foreigner with his red hair and red eyes (was that even normal?) was a total stranger. A total stranger who had decided to approach Maria on his way home from school to ask him to do… what, exactly?

Yeah, that was the second thing. You don't really get asked to kill someone every day, by the person themselves, to boot.

"Kill me, please!", the boy repeated as Maria stayed silent. Maria blinked.

"Um, no, hold on a second. What are you even talking about?"

"You _are_ Maria, right?", the redhead questioned, staring at Maria intently. "The son of Yusei Rosario di Maria?"

Maria shivered. Hearing his father's name brought up unpleasant memories.

"So what of it?", he asked, briskly resuming his walk home.

"My parents were killed by your father."

Maria stopped dead in his tracks. So that was it.

There hadn't been any attacks for quite a while now (the few weeks of peace had been a bliss), so he had let his guard down a bit, but he guessed this was it.

Truthfully, his father hadn't been what you would call a saint while he was alive. Actually, he was quite the opposite, despite being a priest and living in a church.

He was a killer.

And people who had their families or friends killed by him would come to seek revenge from time to time. The problem was, that didn't stop after Yusei Rosario di Maria had passed away. For some reason, those people came after him, Ichiro Rosario di Maria, to exact their revenge.

Maybe they wanted to at least get the offspring, if they couldn't get the culprit himself.

So this kid was one of them, huh? He really didn't look like it, though, with his straightforward eyes and all the fidgeting he was doing next to him, unsure of how to take Marias reaction.

"Um… Maria?"

Maria was no friend of pointless fights. If possible, he wanted to avoid any kind of conflict concerning his life. So he decided to run.

He knew that he would be safe once he made it back home. One thing he was thankful for towards his father was the church Maria lived in. Yusei had turned it into an impregnable fortress to fend off any attempts to end his life in his own home. An electric fence, a bolted door and several useful gimmicks around the small annex next to the church did the trick.

Maria was two streets away from said church, taking a shortcut through a small alley, when he looked back over his shoulder and noticed the redhead was nowhere to be seen.

He stopped, still trying to catch his breath, when he noticed he wasn't alone. The young priest looked up and found himself faced with a group of men, the one in the front holding something in his hand that looked very much like a nice, sharp _knife_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, so, there's the first chapter.  
> I just really wanted to write something for this fandom, and it's been quite a while since I've written anything, so I hope you won't be too hard on me.  
> And seriously, I have no idea how long or short this is gonna be.


	2. Let's not forget the red

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maria again realizes that this kid isn't normal.

Maria was at his limit.  
He had a basic knowledge of martial arts, he wouldn't have lived up to this day if he didn't, but the extent of his capabilities was… well, that he was more of the avoid-and-run type was clear as day at this point.

So, really, he wasn't any threat to a gang of tough guys with knives and such.

He was cornered, slumped against the wall of the alley, bruised in several places with his thoughts way too clouded to think of any possible way out of this situation.

His anemia was kicking in.

He had been like this since his childhood. If he overexerted himself, be it physically or psychologically, he would become dizzy, often accompanied by a severe headache, his legs would give away, and in the worst case, he would faint.

But if he fainted here, he probably wouldn't see another morning.

While Maria was still fighting the fading of his consciousness, the leader apparently decided that now would be a good time to end it, and lunged out with the knife that he had barely used up to that point.

Before the knife even got near him, his attacker was forced to the ground by an incredible impact.  
His companions soon followed as they were kicked and punched in places that looked like they were going to hurt a hell lot the next day.

The last thing Maria saw before loosing consciousness was a slim figure with red hair.

* * *

His head hurt.

That was the first thing he noticed as he awoke from the deep sleep he had somehow fallen into.

He had no idea what had happened at the end of that fight. The pain in his head had slowly started to subside, but in exchange Maria now felt the rest of his body, every bruised and cut inch.

His wounds didn't seem all to bad though, since he didn't have much trouble sitting up - in his bed, as he noticed then.

He was at home, in his room, the blanket that had been pulled up all the way to his shoulders now sliding down his upper body.

The young priest noted two things.  
First, he had no idea how he had made it here.  
Second, as he looked down, he noticed his wounds had been carefully treated, his body looking like a weird patchwork of some sort with all the bandages and band-aids covering him.

Before he had time to process his thoughts, a movement beside him caught his attention.

"Maria"

"Woah!!"

It was the kid. The one with the red hair and almost even redder eyes. Those weren't the only red things about him now. On his hands, even in his face, there was… blood.

"What the… what's with that appearance? Why are you even here…" Ah. His memories of the fight returned. He remembered this redhead coming to save him for some reason, after that he must have blacked out.

"I brought you here", the boy then replied, confirming Maria's thoughts.

Huh. "Why are you looking like that, then?" Maria could vaguely remember that this thin kid had beat all his opponents down in mere seconds, so that couldn't be it.

"Oh… this?" Redhead lifted his hands to inspect the blood on them.

"This isn't mine. It's your blood."

… Wow. He hadn't expected that. Next question.

"How did we get here? I mean, how did you know where I live?" Leaving aside that this boy was a good bit smaller than him and didn't exactly seem like a bodybuilder, Maria _had_ seen him take out all those big guys, so the fact he had carried him here wasn't all that unbelievable.

"Your student ID, it was in your pocket, and your keys were in your bag so…" He suddenly jumped up. "I didn't steal them, I put everything back right away, so-"

"Alright, okay, I get it."

Maria was still suspicious, but if redhead had wanted to kill him, he'd already be dead judging from what he had witnessed earlier. He wouldn't have brought him home, put him to bed and treated him this carefully either. Also, this kid looked somewhat like a puppy-

Something on top of the red hair caught Maria's attention; to be specific the hood of the strange parka he was wearing.

Cat ears.

"Uh..." He started, "I don't really want to question your hobbies, but _what is that?_ I mean, you might be younger than me, but - what are you, fifteen? - even so, that's kind of…"

The kid only blinked at him blankly. After the silence that followed while he seemed to be processing what Maria had just said, he wasn't really expecting an answer anymore. The priest opened his mouth again, ready to drop the question and move on.

"Seventeen."

Maria closed his mouth abruptly and raised a brow. "Huh?"

"I'm seventeen. That's what you asked, right?" His small lifesaver with superhuman strength tilted his head. Correction. This _seventeen-year-old_ small lifesaver with superhuman strength - meaning he was the same age as Maria, holy crap - and red eyes and hair. Let's not forget the red.

Yeah. This kid was weird alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter two~  
> I can't believe I got 5 Kudos in a week. This is such a small fandom after all (sadly), so this is really a lot, and I'm real happy ^^  
> I hope you'll continue reading!


	3. 'Live a fulfilled life, die a meaningful death'

"What's your name?"

Maria had decided to go with one of the probably simplest questions that existed; going with the safer route appeared to be the better choice, he was still dealing with the shock of him and this kid being the same age after all.

Couldn't be much surprises in the name, right? 

"Mary."

… Yep. Let's take that back.

"Is that… your first name?" No matter how foreign this guy looked, Mary was a bit on the wrong side, wasn't it? As far as he knew, that is.

"Yeah"

"Isn't that a bit… girly?"

"Wha- I don't want to hear that from you!", he pouted. It was really hard getting the practically nonexistent age difference through his head with redhead - Mary - behaving this childish.

"You do know that Maria is my last name, right?"

Mary only pouted some more.

Maria sighed. He had judged Mary as harmless for now, not feeling any threat by being in the same room.

"Well, thank you for saving me, I guess. Is there anything I can do in return?" The young priest really didn't like being indebted, especially to strangers.

The red eyes lit up, and Mary immediately blurted out: "Then, kill me, please!"

 _Right._ There was that, too.

"Rejected."

Mary seemed shocked. "Why?!"

 _'What does he mean, why?'_ , Maria thought, his limbs already feeling heavy again, calling for a second round of sleep. Good thing it was the weekend. He glanced to the alarm clock on his nightstand, the digits telling him that it was early Saturday morning.

He sighed, trying to concentrate on what he was going to say next.

"Why would you want me to kill you? That doesn't make sense. First of all, you said my father killed your parents, right? Shouldn't _you_  be the one trying to kill _me_?" Not dwelling on how completely twisted that sounded - hey, his dad was an a-class murderer, and Maria had had scary encounters since his childhood, so he couldn't help being a bit twisted - he realized he had finally come down to the core problem at hand.

Mary looked like some kind of realization hit him and the next second words were tumbling out of his hastily opened mouth.

"No!! I mean, that- that's not…" He paused, seemingly gathering his thoughts. "I don't want to kill you! I don't want to kill anyone!", was how he finally concluded what he wanted to say.

Maria stayed wary. Even though he had classified him as no current threat, that didn't mean it had to stay that way, and he definitely didn't look forward to fighting someone like this guy, whom he would obviously lose against, in the near future.

He would like to avoid doing so in the far future, too, to be honest.

"Then, what do you want me to do? You say to kill you, but, to be frank, I don't get it." This guy couldn't seriously be expecting Maria to kind of up and stab him or something along those lines, right?

"You won't kill me if I don't tell you?"

 _'I won't kill you either way'_ , Maria thought, but he decided not saying that out loud would be better for now. "Exactly." That wasn't a lie.

"I don't want to die a meaningless death", he started his explanation. Maria didn't know where this was going, but he might as well listen to this guy's little story. It _did_  seem a bit interesting, after all.

"Or rather, that's what my mom told me. She used to say that kind of stuff a lot", Mary stated, sitting down next to the bed with crossed legs, still facing Maria. He supported his upper body by pressing the palms of his hands on his legs near the ankles.

" _'Live a fulfilled life, die a meaningful death'_  was her motto for as long as I can remember. Well, I was eight when they died, so I don't remember that much."

Eight, huh. Maria had been nine when Yusei Rosario di Maria had passed away.

"But, she always wanted me to live to my fullest, so I could die without regrets. At least I think that's what she meant." Mary looked like he was going to say more, but then he closed his mouth and lowered his head.

Maria was confused. "So why are you trying to die then? Isn't that the opposite of what your Mother wanted?"

Mary shook his head vigorously.

"I don't have anything I want to do anymore. I mean, I tried lots of thing since they died, fun things, things to live for, or somethin' like that. But…", he grew silent for a moment, "in the end… I didn't really find anything."

The young priest was starting to feel sorry for this strange kid a bit, but not much. Maria wasn't much of an empathetic person.

"That's why", the redhead suddenly perked up, "I thought that, now where I didn't have a reason to live anymore, I should find a meaningful way to die."

Something clicked inside Maria's head. "You mean something along the lines of getting killed by me while attempting to avenge your parents?"

Mary nodded enthusiastically. "Yep!!"

Now that was plain stupid. Leaving aside that Maria's chances of surviving, or rather, Mary's chances of dying in a serious fight were laughably small; there wasn't anything meaningful about that way of dying.

If there even _was_ such a thing as a meaningful death. In Maria's opinion, there wasn't.

What was better than living?


	4. Some sort of amazement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for not updating for so long.  
> I'm really not good with regular updates, so when I try to force myself, it ends up like this.  
> I'll just go with unregular updates for now, since I'll be able to continue this story that way.  
> I'm giving you a slightly longer chapter as an apology, so please forgive me. T^T  
> I was incredibly happy about your feedback, I'm looking forward to more of it. ^_^  
> With that, I hope you enjoy!! c:

Maria must have drifted back to sleep at some point, lulled in by Mary talking randomly about whatever he remembered about his parents.

Mary's voice was a bit higher than average, but unmistakably a guy's; it just had this somehow soothing childlike touch to it. Or maybe that was just part of his character in general.

Either way, it was past noon now, and Maria was alone in his room. He wasn't as much concerned as to where Mary had gone as he was with his rumbling stomach and starting light headache; he had to eat, or it would only get worse.

His whole body ached as he stood up, but it wasn't nearly as bad as he would have expected. Mary had really treated his wounds thoroughly.

Maria shivered. Since the bruises on his upper body were probably too many to count, it had been necessary for Mary to remove his shirt, necktie and blazer, he understood that. But it was late autumn, and _cold_.

After the priest had gotten something comfortable to slip into out of his closet, he headed for the kitchen. Or he tried, but he tripped over something after making two steps into the small corridor.

When he looked down, he saw a rolled up figure with cat ears and a few strands of red hair showing.

Mary stirred in his sleep. He blearily blinked up at Maria, who was still deciding on whether he should be amused, annoyed or just ignore it.

"Good mornin'~", Mary yawned, rubbing his eyes while sitting up.

"I don't really want to know, but, why the heck are you sleeping on the floor in front of my room?"

"Was waiting for you to wake up…"

"Great, but why _here_?"

"I didn't want to wake you, so I waited in front of your door." He got up from the floor and stretched his arms above his head. "More importantly, do you have anything to eat? I'm kind of starving here…"

Maria nearly got annoyed, but then he remembered that this guy had probably saved his life. So he only let out a deep sigh and continued his way to the kitchen.

"Look, I'm really anemic, so it's only gonna be scrambled eggs." It was easy and fast to make, and about all he could manage without running danger of collapsing again.

Nonetheless, Mary's eyes lit up in glee as he nodded eagerly. Weird kid, really.

* * *

The redhead - or, now that he looked at it closely, the hair was more scarlet - stood in the middle of the kitchen, fidgeting uncontrollably while Maria turned on the heat under the pan and started cracking and stirring some eggs in a bowl.

As Mary started pacing, the priest's headache threatened to get worse.

"The cupboard, behind you. There are plates. Put two on the table.", Maria commanded, if only to give him something useful to do.

Scarlet hair did as told, and also laid out two forks after Maria asked him to.

A bit of fidgeting while sitting at the table on Mary's behalf later, Maria finally finished cooking the scrambled eggs and divided them into two portions. Then he also sat down.

"Ittadakimasu."

Maria started eating, but paused after a few moments as he noticed that Mary wasn't doing the same.

He was only staring at Maria blankly.

"What?", the young priest inquired.

The scarlethead immediately snapped out of his daze, blinking a few times before finally answering.

“Huh?”

Okay, truthfully, that wasn’t much of an answer, but oh well, it didn’t really matter.

“I’ll eat that if you don’t want it”

“Ah… No, I’ll eat it, I’ll eat!”, Mary said while hastily grabbing his fork.

Maria continued eating, but was interrupted by Mary’s voice mere seconds later.

“It’s just, uh…” The redhead was holding a forkful of scrambled egg, eying it thoughtfully.

“It’s kind of been a while”, his voice faded into a whisper, “since I’ve eaten together with someone…”

The young priest lowered his own fork, feeling some sort of amazement welling up within him. Mary was right. Maria knew that he was quite popular, so he was often surrounded while eating in the cafeteria, but it wasn’t the same.

Sitting at home, eating at the table with together someone else – for Maria too, it had been a very long time.

Maria couldn’t really define how that made him feel, but he didn’t hate it.

Not that he would ever admit that.

* * *

Maria was amazed in a whole different way only a few minutes later.

He had only turned to set the dishes in the sink, when he heard a _thump_. The sight greeting him as he glanced over his shoulder made him freeze in bewilderment; Mary was hanging down from the side of his chair, head almost touching the floor, in a position that looked so uncomfortable that the priest found it impossible to hold for more than five seconds. Despite that, this kid was peacefully _sleeping_.

While Maria was still pondering on how to deal with this situation, the chair and the boy (half) on it were gradually loosing their balance and eventually crashed with great noise.

The young priest waited for Mary to stand up or give some other reaction. When that didn’t happen, he walked around the table for better view and saw that he was still sleeping, although his expression was rather unhappy now.

Maria sighed; he wasn’t really ready for exercise yet, and his wounds, though faint, still hurt.

Even so, leaving his lifesaver on the cold kitchen floor didn’t sit right with him after all, so he bent down and picked the redhead up bridal style to carry him to the couch in the living room.

Mary’s expression turned peaceful again after he was placed on the soft cushions, and Maria eyed him cautiously.

This kid had caught his interest somehow.

Should he…?

After dwelling upon it for a bit, he abruptly forced himself to a decision.

Maria turned around and headed down the corridor toward a room he hadn’t set foot in for years.

His father’s workroom.


	5. Records

Maria sneezed, the dusty file he had just pulled out of the shelf almost sliding from his grip.

He had opened the window, fresh air and sunlight flowing inside for the first time in years.

Now that the sky was clear, it started to warm up a little outside. A few hot days would probably follow before autumn weather hit with full force, Maria mused.

Yusei Rosario di Maria had kept records on each and every one of his targets, albeit the reason was unclear.

It made the young priest suspect there had been a reason being his father killing people, no matter how incomprehensible it appeared to him.

For now, he couldn’t do much more than narrowing it down to all files on couples or families, Maria thought while he started systematically going through the uppermost shelf on the bookrack which occupied an entire wall of his father’s study.

The step ladder he stood on creaked; who knew when it had last been oiled. His father had been the only one to ever use it, after all.

* * *

 Maria was feeling dizzy again. His arms ached along with his whole body.

He didn’t know how many hours it had been, and he had yet to even make it to the middle of the first shelf.

Now, with the sun setting, it was getting to dark to see, so he decided to call it a day and put back the record he was holding with a sigh.

He had only skimmed through roughly two dozen files, and yet he was utterly exhausted.

The files were, surprising enough, written in _German_ , and, to make things worse, in some kind of old-fashioned script which made it close to impossible to read.

The young priest stepped down from the ladder, causing it to give of a noisy creak – but not loud enough to conceal the even louder screeching of the ajar door swinging open slowly.

Maria was met with Mary’s uncertain expression, the redhead’s eyes repeatedly failing to meet his.

Mary only stayed like that for a few seconds, though.

“Woah”, he exclaimed while staring at the bookshelf, “that’s _a lot_.”

“What do you want?”, Maria lashed out, harsher than he had intended. Mary flinched, giving him a startled look.

“Well, you, I mean – you weren’t there when I woke up, so I came to look for you…”

“I see. That’s fine”, Maria said evenly, trying to take the edge off his earlier words. For a moment, he had felt that Mary was intruding, so carelessly stepping into the room he hadn’t been able to bring himself to enter for what seemed like ages.

Scarlethead perked up a little, noticeably relieved that the he wasn’t mad at him.

“What are you doing?”, he asked him curiously.

“Nothing that concerns you”, Maria plainly stated. Okay, that was definitely a lie. It had everything to do with him, really. Also, with his choice of words he had clearly told the redhead off.

Nonetheless, Mary merely blinked; he didn’t appear offended in any way. “Huh…”

They both went silent, Maria not seeing a need to continue the conversation. After a few moments, he turned to pick up the four files he had put aside during his search to examine them closer later.

Two of them were records of normal couples, another one was of a married couple, and the fourth contained information about a man and a woman who were close work partners and had apparently also lived in the same apartment complex.

Holding them in one hand, the young priest closed the window and then walked past Mary out of the room, the latter following right after him.

* * *

 Maria was lying in his bed, working himself through the first record at an agonizingly slow pace. Mary was lounging around in the living room. Both of them had eaten, though the redhead had limited himself to tomatoes for some reason.

He probably should be more bothered by the fact of a strange kid freeloading in his home, but somehow, he didn’t really mind.

The young priest was pretty certain that Mary wasn’t dangerous, or at least no threat to his life. Even so, Maria wasn’t even close to trusting him, so his bedroom was securely locked from the inside. Of course, it was the same for his windows.

Realizing his thoughts were drifting of, he decided that he wouldn’t get any more decrypting done this night and laid the file to the other three on his nightstand.

He turned of the lights and listened for any unusual sounds, but the only thing he could here was the faint murmuring from the TV in the living room.

With that, and how tired he was, he finally drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There goes chapter five. Hope you enjoyed it :D


	6. Tomatoes

He woke up to the sound of rustling paper.

It took him a while locate the cause – he was still half asleep after all – but the he looked to the floor; only to find Mary sitting there looking at on of the files.

No, wait.

He seemed to be actually _reading_ them.

Mary had finally noticed him waking up and gave him a puppy smile. Typical. It kind of irked Maria that he was already able to think something like 'typical' about this kid he was supposed to barely know. He ignored Mary's „g'morning“.

„You can read that?“

Mary seemed taken aback, blinking, before he understood what Maria was talking about.

„Huh? Oh, yeah... My dad... taught me this. I was always interested in his work and remembered some words on my own... in the end, he gave in and taught me“

So his parents had something to do with German? Or languages in general? Well, Mary's father, at least.

„Well, that's just great.“ Maria grabbed the remaining three files from his nightstand and set them down next to Mary. „You look through these and tell me all about it later. I'll go get some more rest in the living room“ he said while walking towards the door.

„Wha- Why?!“

„Who are we doing this for?“

Mary turned meek. „M-me...“

Maria attempted to shut the door behind him. It was only no that he realized something.

„Wait a sec, redhead.“

He had definitely _locked_ the door before going to sleep.

„How did you get in?“

Mary avoided his probing gaze. „Uhh...“

As the young priest decided to take a closer look at the keyhole, he saw that it had been picked.

Maria took a step toward him. „You-!!“

„B-but!“ Mary whined, „I hate being left alone! I was scared...“

„Scared of _what_? Seriously...“ Despite himself, Maria calmed down. This kid had been alone for who knows how long. And it's not like he had done anything besides that. After a few seconds passing with Mary staring at him pleadingly, he sighed and turned back towards the door.

„Don't come out before you're finished.“ With that, he left.

 

* * *

 

 

_And here a little extra ^.^_

 

It wasn't until noon that Mary finally finished reading everything. He stretched and started at the sound of his grumbling tummy. Stupid Maria. Made him work this much before he had breakfast. Mary pouted.

He carefully opened the door and snuck down the corridor. As he reached the living room, he peeked around the corner and found Maria sleeping on the couch, an open book lying on his chest. He tiptoed in the kitchen and closed the door behind him.

Finally able to breathe freely, he was about to head towards the fridge as he noticed something sitting on the table. A plate covered by another plate, on the side of the table he had sat at yesterday. He cautiously lifted the cover.

There he found some toast, rice (he had to wonder about that combination) and –

Mary's eyes lit up. Lying on the rim of the plate were two thick slices of tomato.

He sat down and started to eat.

„Yummy“

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I apologize.  
> When I was about to upload the sixth chapter a whole while ago, it was kind of... gone. Like, my phone was trolling me. I was kind of pissed and henceforth took a break from writing.  
> I wrote it new just now. The content is still pretty much the same (I hope xD).


	7. Equations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a new chapter :D

Before he knew it, it was Friday again. The one week since he met Mary had gone by in a flash. They had breakfast together (the redhead somehow insisted on waking up early just for the sake of that every morning), Maria went to school, and when he came back, tired out, Mary greeted him cheerily from the couch where he was usually lounging, reading.

He was always either studying the files from his fathers workroom or flicking through the comics Maria had _definitely not_ bought because he was concerned the scarlethead might be bored alone all day.

Because that would be ridiculous. Leaving aside that he certainly _did not_ care about whether his freeloader was having a good time or not, there were things like television for that. Or other stuff. Mary could always decide to sleep.

He brushed those thoughts away in favor of concentrating on the new recipe he was trying out. Mary hadn't complained about his food, but the young priest had suddenly felt the urge to make something different. His repertory on dishes hadn't been that great to begin with, so it wasn't a bad time to start.

At dinner – it had been his first time making spaghetti, and even though making the bolognese from scratch was the trickier part, it had been surprisingly easy – Mary reported everything he had read in the files faithfully, like he had done the days before, sometimes slipping in some comments of his own opinion, which Maria took in, but mostly didn't respond too (save a snort or contemplative frown here and there).

So far they hadn't found any significant clue to who Mary's parent were. Aside from that, Maria had learned more about his fathers work during this one week than he had learned in his seventeen years of life up til now.

It was that evening that Maria found out something new about Mary. Namely, the fact that this kid wasn't stupid.

It wasn't like the young priest hadn't been aware of this before. Being able to read _German_ just like that was evidence enough. But that wasn't all.

Maria wasn't bad at school. Not at all. In fact, he counted to the top of his year. His English was flawless, history and geography were easy. He was good at math. But being _good_ at something doesn't necessarily mean you always get it right.

He was brooding over his textbook, looking back and forth between the number his equation had led to and the right one he was given to compare.

He sighed and went on to go through his calculation for the third time, his hope of finding his mistake turning slim to none.

Then there suddenly was a slender finger tapping on a specific part of his equation.

“You forgot the brackets here.”

Maria literally _jumped_. He hadn't noticed Mary approaching at all. Even though Maria was usually sensitive to other peoples presences, it seemed to work on Mary less and less.

“How long have you been there?”, he asked, calming himself.

“O- only about ten seconds?” Mary answered, having flinched back also due to Maria's Reaction.

The priest blinked and looked at the part Mary had pointed out before, recognizing he was right. He was astonished that Mary had found the small, but important mistake he had made in the calculation of showing why, when points A and D were so and so and point C was (0/4/-2), the freaking floor was tilted.

Without another word, he redid everything from that point on, with Mary hovering close to him, watching interestedly, and finally came to the correct solution.

Maria leaned back and sighed. He let a few moments of silence pass before he spoke up.

“When did you stop going to school, exactly?”

Mary tilted his head in thought. “About two years ago?”

That wasn't as long ago as he had expected. He didn't bother to question that despite everything Mary had been through, he still went to school dutifully up to some point. School had probably just been a source of fun for him, no?

What picked his interest was why he had stopped after all that time.

He didn't have to ask, because Mary started talking anyway.

“School was a lot of fun. I like learning new things. But because of that, I didn't pay attention to my friends much. It seems they started hating me. My things disappeared and stuff like that. That wasn't fun at all.”

His shoulders slumped, and he looked like a pup– uhh, cat – abandoned in the rain. Maria realized once again how childish his behaviour was and wondered if it was some sort of disposition he had due to losing his parents early. There were kids like that. Though Maria couldn't say so of himself.

So he stopped going to school because of mobbing? That sounded so cliche – but Maria knew it was different in Mary's case.

He didn't inquire further and asked a different question instead.

“Do you want to go to school?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't see this coming myself.  
> Looks like Mary's gonna start going to school, lol.


End file.
